The Amazon Partnership Platform (PPA, in Portuguese), coordinated by Idesam, mapped over 30 Amazon startups in different developmental stages. The mapped cases cover different sectors, such as technological innovation, agroindustry, education, forestry businesses, fish farming and tourism among others that, in the future, may receive contributions from angel investors.

This approach is part of PPA’s Steering Committee strategy to encourage angel investments in startups from the Amazon, being one of the platform’s priority interest-areas in 2018. Over the year, PPA will broaden this mapping, including an open call in the second semester. The process will culminate in a round of prizes and potential investments to boost the sector.

The businesses identified by the PPA contribute to social and environmental improvements, such as market access and income generation, deforestation reduction and social inclusion. Launched in late 2017, PPA seeks to combine business profitability with regional development, besides fostering entrepreneurship among local communities and conserving the Amazon biodiversity.

The platform is led by the private sector, and Idesam leads its Executive Coordination, together with USAID (United States Agency for International Development ) and CIAT (The International Center for Tropical Agriculture).

For senior researcher at Idesam and PPA’s coordinator, Mariano Cenamo, entrepreneurship is not new to the Amazon, where there are already countless innovation and resilience experiences. “PPA’s differential is seeking to engage companies that already operate in the Amazon with environmental sustainability, valuing Amazon forest assets”, he points out.

In its last meeting, Steering Committee members debated the platform’s progress since its launch. PPA’s governance and communication procedures were agreed upon and actions to promote the investment in Amazonian startups were elaborated, such as incubation of acceleration of recently identified initiatives.